An Existential Approach To E. L. Doctorow’s Homer And Langley

Fiction is a poetic meditation on individual existence. As an American Jewish writer who is impressed by humanism, E. L. Doctorow adopts a concise narrative art to explore man’s possibility in modern society, and his works convey the ultimate concern and philosophical reflection of personal life. Homer and Langley is rewritten from the stories of Collyer brothers—two famous hoarders in the U.S., it presents many changes of New York and the whole world. As a philosophy of individual life and value, existentialism has generated a profound influence on modern and postmodern writers, it enriches Doctorow’s sentimental experience towards the reality in his books. In recent years, scholars at home and abroad have done some researches on themes and narrative strategies of Homer and Langley from the perspectives of new historicism, media ecology, spatial epistemology, ethics and narratology, they have analyzed the implications of living space, individual morality, religion and modernity. However, an existential approach to the characters’ ways of life and meaning has not been systematically carried out. Existentialism flourished in America in the 1950 s and 60 s, and it combined with humanism to expand the creative ideas and techniques of postwar writers. Doctorow gets influenced by its concepts and uncovers different turmoils triggered by wars and crises and an infliction of heavy loss on the individuals in the novel. This thesis adopts the existential thoughts of absurdity, alienation, bad faith, freedom and responsibility to analyze the hoarders’ self-deviation and free struggle. Although encountering setbacks such as the disordered situation of wastes and a rupture with the community, others and themselves, the brothers defense their independence and dignity through philosophical thinking about human existence, free choice, responsibility and a maintenance of genuine emotion. However, a universal failure of transcendence satirizes man’s futility under huge pressures and further illustrates realistic connotations of the Collyers’ crash and decay of American dream.Based on a thematic analysis, this thesis concludes that Doctorow’s disclosure of the characters’ lives and meaning echoes existential theories. Freedom is irrelevant with a final success, so everyone can have a possibility of transcending himself and getting a genuine existence within the conflicts between his will and the reality. In the novel, the writer not only speaks highly of man’s authentic action and responsibility, but also criticizes the fragile humanity in dilemmas, which brings the readers a thought-provoking experience.